The Most Beautiful Places in Turkmenistan
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Turkmenistan are Darvaza Gas Crater, Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum and Kutlug Timur Minaret. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Most of Turkmenistan is covered by the Karakum, the Black Sand desert, and its landscapes are shaped by the extremes of that dryness and by what lies beneath it: vast reserves of natural gas, salt basins and soft sedimentary rock carved by wind. Yet the oases along the Amu Darya and the Murghab were among the great cities of the Silk Road, where Seljuk sultans and the rulers of Khwarezm raised domes and minarets of brick that still stand above the plain.
The Darvaza Gas Crater, often called the Door to Hell, is a collapsed pit in the middle of the Karakum where natural gas has been burning since Soviet-era drilling, a ring of flame that glows across the desert at night. In the far west, near the Caspian, Yangykala Canyon cuts through layered cliffs of red, pink and white sediment, the bed of an ancient sea exposed in a maze of ravines. Köw Ata, near the foothills of the Kopet Dag, is a cave descending to an underground lake of warm, mineral-rich water.
The historic monuments belong to two great sites. At Merv, the Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar, built for the Seljuk ruler in the twelfth century, is a massive brick cube crowned by a double dome, one of the landmarks of early Islamic architecture. At Kunya-Urgench, once the capital of Khwarezm, the Kutlug Timur Minaret rises high above the plain in bands of decorative brickwork, and the Turabek Khanum Mausoleum preserves a dome interior covered in a brilliant mosaic of glazed tile.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darvaza Gas Crater | Doline | |
| 2 | Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum | Mausoleum | |
| 3 | Kutlug Timur Minaret | Mosque | |
| 4 | Köw Ata | Cave | |
| 5 | Yangykala Canyon | Canyon | |
| 6 | Turabek Khanum Mausoleum | Mausoleum |
01 Darvaza Gas Crater
Turkmenistan40.253° N 58.439° E
flydime · CC BY-SA 2.0 In the flat sands of the Karakum Desert, far from any town, a pit roughly 60–70 metres across and about 30 metres deep has been burning for decades. Natural gas seeping from the ground feeds countless small flames along its walls and floor, and the heat can be felt well before the rim.
Did you know? In 2010 the country's president recommended steps to stop the burning crater from interfering with gas field development in the area.
02 Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum
Turkmenistan · 30 km from Mary37.664° N 62.164° E
Hergit · CC BY-SA 3.0 In the flat desert of southeastern Turkmenistan, amid the eroded walls of ancient Merv, one great brick building still stands almost whole.
Did you know? Sanjar came to power as a boy of about 10 or 12, appointed by his half-brother Berk-Yaruq after wars of succession.
03 Kutlug Timur Minaret
Turkmenistan · 2.2 km from Konye-Urgench42.309° N 59.142° E
Doron · CC BY-SA 3.0 Rising about 60 metres above the steppe at Konye-Urgench, the Kutlug Timur Minaret is the tallest minaret in Central Asia and the tallest monument among the ruins of Old Urgench, one of the historic cities of Khwarezm.
Did you know? The minaret belonged to the city's principal congregational mosque, and its doorway opened from inside the prayer hall.
04 Köw Ata
Turkmenistan38.300° N 57.519° E
David Stanley · CC BY 2.0 Köw Ata is a warm underground lake hidden in a cavern at the foot of the Kopet Dag mountains in Turkmenistan. A long, lit staircase leads down from the entrance into a hall roughly 250 metres long, where a still, transparent pool with a bluish-green tint fills the floor of the cave.
Did you know? The cave became widely known after an 1896 newspaper note reported that staff of the nearby Bakharly railway station had installed wooden ladders for visitors.
05 Yangykala Canyon
Turkmenistan40.632° N 54.927° E
John Pavelka from Austin, TX, USA · CC BY 2.0 In the deserts of north-western Turkmenistan, the ground falls away into a maze of cliffs and ravines striped in red, pink, orange and white. Yangykala – usually translated from Turkmen as "fiery fortresses" – owes its name to the colour of its rock, and local people also call the area Gyzyl Dag, the Red Mountains.
Did you know? The name Garabogaz means 'black throat', after the strikingly dark water of the narrow strait linking it to the Caspian.
06 Turabek Khanum Mausoleum
Turkmenistan · 2.5 km from Konye-Urgench42.311° N 59.137° E
Tim Williams · CC BY-SA 3.0 From outside, the mausoleum of Turabek Khanum in Konye-Urgench is a weathered brick building fronted by a tall entrance portal.
Did you know? The vanished outer roof is described as a blue-glazed conical tent rising on a tall drum pierced by twelve openings.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Turkmenistan?
- On our list, Darvaza Gas Crater ranks first, followed by Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum and Kutlug Timur Minaret.
- Why is the Darvaza gas crater burning?
- The crater formed when the ground collapsed during Soviet-era gas exploration in the Karakum. The escaping natural gas was set alight to stop it spreading, and it has kept burning ever since.
- What is Kunya-Urgench?
- Kunya-Urgench is the site of the old capital of Khwarezm in northern Turkmenistan, a major city of the Silk Road. Its surviving mausoleums and minaret are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- What is Köw Ata?
- Köw Ata is a limestone cave near Bahardan in the Kopet Dag foothills that leads down to an underground lake. The lake is fed by warm, sulphurous mineral springs, so its water stays warm all year.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Turkmenistan?
- In our collection, the places in Turkmenistan are most often mausoleums (2), canyons and gorges (1), caves (1) and sinkholes (1).
- How many places are on this list in Turkmenistan?
- The list covers 6 places.